I think this is one thing that separates the MMO fans from the Final Fantasy fans. This game is heavily storybased everything that happens in the game happens for a reason, I remember one time I was running Xelphtol with someone and they were all “why is the boss summoning Garuda?” And that's the entire point of why you are going there in the story... skipping the story only does a disservice to the game if someone doesn’t want a game that is deeply connected to its story this isn’t the game for them.